Assam Paddy Procurement; 7.55 Lakh MT Target for KMS 2025–26

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: The Assam government has finalized agency allocations and procurement targets for the first crop of the Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2025–26, with procurement starting in December 2025. Notably, the overall target for the upcoming season is significantly lower than the first-crop target set for KMS 2024–25.

For KMS 2025–26 (1st crop), a total procurement target of 7,55,500 MT of paddy has been distributed among four agencies—Assam Food & Civil Supplies Corporation Limited (AFCSCL), Assam State Agricultural Marketing Board (ASAMB), National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) and Food Corporation of India (FCI). The procurement targets set for the four agencies: AFCSCL 5,88,000 MT; ASAMB 5,500 MT; FCI 69,000 MT; and NAFED 93,000 MT.

The target for KMS 2025–26 (1st crop) is lower than that of the KMS 2024–25 first-crop target of 8,01,082 MT, indicating a calibrated approach for this cycle.

Assam recorded substantial procurement under KMS 2024–25 (first crop), with 697802.74 MT of paddy purchased against a target of 8,01,082 MT, benefiting 55,051 farmers.

For the second crop of KMS 2024–25, Assam achieved procurement of 152761.80 MT, nearly meeting the target of 1,52,919 MT. A total of 11,479 farmers benefited.

Meanwhile, the Central Government has increased the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for paddy for the 2025–26 KMS. For Common variety of paddy, the MSP is Rs 2,369 per quintal, hiked by Rs 69 for 2024-25. For the Grade-A variety, the MSP is Rs 2,389, which is also up by Rs 69 per quintal.

For comparison, the MSP for KMS 2024–25 was Rs 2,300 per quintal for the Common variety and Rs 2,320 per quintal for the Grade-A variety.

Talking to The Sentinel, AFCSCL vice-chairman Dewan Dhruba Jyoti Maral said, “After allocation of targets to the four procurement agencies, the process for registration of farmers is going on. There is available paddy with the farmers. The entire procurement process will be done through 179 paddy procurement centres (PPCs). Our agency has already started the procurement process. We have activated 20 PPCs, and already 5,671 MT of paddy has been purchased from 436 farmers.”

The other three agencies are yet to start the procurement process. The registration process for farmers has not been started yet in many districts.

 Also Read: Assam: Morigaon district launches paddy procurement under MSP scheme